As readers have correctly pointed out in the comments below, WW erred in a post drawing a connection between a New York Times article detailing aviation subsidies that benefit the Bandon Dunes golf resort, on the one hand, and state Sen. Betsy Johnson’s legislation promoting development around rural airports such as Brookings’, on the other. Bandon Dunes is not served by the Brookings airport. The original incorrect post has been taken down. WW regrets the error.
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Geography lesson, Nigel: Brookings Airport is in Brookings. Know where that is? 100-plus miles south of Bandon Dunes. There goes your Betsy Johnson link, your headline, and your hook for this post. Why not just apologize to Sen. Johnson, Bandon Dunes, and your editors and pull this post?
The statement that Brooking airport server Bandon Dunes doesn’t make sense. It’s a 85 mile, 2 hour drive from Brooking to Bandon, while Bandon has its own airport adjacent to town.
The Bandon airport can accommodate most general aviation aircraft, but it lacks an instrument approach. Larger aircraft, including private jets, can use the Koos Bay airport which is about about 25 miles from Bandon. Unlike the Brookings and Bandon airports, Koos Bay has an instrument approach and airline service.
The simple fact is that the Brookings airport doesn’t serve Bandon. No one would fly to Brookings if their final destination was Bandon. They would either fly directly to the Bandon airport or use Koos Bay if the Bandon airport was too small for the aircraft or if the weather required an instrument approach. It’s simply sloppy reporting to suggest anything else.
Look at a map.
Tom
Oh come on Al and Tom! This is Pulitzer Nigel! Don’t let hard facts get into the way of good “they know each other, work in some of the same areas, so there must be corruption” stories!
How can you guys call yourselves a newspaper?
The two posters above me just proved you didn’t even do basic, 101 journalism.
I thought there might be something to your story to start off with but with all the really good reporting going on with Loaded Orygun and this very sloppy, sad piece of reporting I’m left to think you are either lazy, dumb or have a serious ax to grind.
This post should be removed and you truly do owe Senator Johnson, Bandon Dunes, the City of Brookings and your readers a serious apology.
Ten years ago, while visiting a relative in North Bend I shot some landings at the Bandon airport in my Cessna. It was really short, really narrow, and generally had a nasty cross wind. Tough to get a piston twin in there, no chance for biz jets or anything carrying more than four people.
In the airport directory I just received, I see the runway has been lenghthened to 3600 feet and they are selling jet fuel on the field, but still no instrument landing system. Clearly, the airport has been improved to attract the globe-trotting upper crust, undoubtedly for the benefit of the golf resort.
I suspect the Times just got the name wrong, or were given the wrong name.
Oh, by the way the “Koos” Bay Airport is actually the North Bend airport.
Cessna Driver — You are missing the point. The NY times article never mentions Brookings or North Bend Airports. Jaquiss is the one trying to make a connection.
The whole “Black Helicoptor” theory by the “Pulitzer” winner is based on Johnson using legislation to help out Brookings airport which helped out her buddy Oxley and Bandon Dunes. The problem is that Brookings does NOT service Bandon Dunes. This means his theory holds no water.
Hey Willy Week when you go to run a good woman’s name through the mud next time do us the courtesy of checking a map.
I screwed up: Bandon Dunes is indeed served by the North Bend Airport, as I should have remembered from the fight over a bill providing lottery funding to that airport in the 2005 legislative session.
I would have acknowledged my error sooner but have been away from computer and phone since mid-afternoon Friday. A proper correction will run shortly.
Shit happens. Hey, at least nobody got killed though. Right, George W. Bush?
Hey Nigel — Thanks for admitting a mistake but how about you say you’re sorry to Senator Johnson, Bandon Dunes, and your readers?
Oh Yeah “Pulitzer” winners never have to say sorry.
There was an effort in the 2005 legislative session to combine SB 680 a bill sponsored by Betsy Johnson to allow “through the fence” development around rural ariports with a second bill SB 152 A, which allocated lottery dollars for expanding the North Bend Airport. See http://www.leg.state.or.us/comm/sms/sms05/hb2537asbud07-14-2005.pdf
By the way the NY Times article does indeed mention the North Bend Airport: “Airline passengers and lottery players are paying for a $31 million expansion of the North Bend Airport to serve the 5,000 business jets that arrive each year, filled almost entirely with golfers. Many of them are executives of publicly traded companies flying at a smalll fraction of the real cost of their trips; taxpayers and shareholders bear nearly all of these costs.”
Johnston, the NY Times reporter, further notes that the aiport is located approximatlely 20 miles north of the resort.
I see a lot of people rising to defend Betsy Johnson, and Nigel Jaquiss has admitted a mistake on the coastal airports….
But no one has been able to demonstrate that it’s wrong to accuse Johnson of using her muscle to help her friends in their PRIVATE BUSINESS DEALS. We’re not talking about some abstract idea of economic development, we’re talking about Johnson going to work for a few people who seem to be close to her.
I don’t care what party or what political persuasion, that sounds eff’ed up. I don’t like the feeling that the state’s Democratic operatives are launching automatically into a defensive mode. There should be something to distinguish us from the Republicans.
Puddlejumper — Democrats are coming to the defense of Senator Johnson because the news media has completely eff’ed up this story. If you do have an open mind I would recommend going and reading http://www.loadedorygun.blogspot.com coverage of how Betsy is being hatcheted.
This mess up with the airports just shows that Nigel is pushing a story rather than gathering fact of a story. The loadedorygun posts do a great job of showing where the Oregonian and WW have relied on people who have an ax to grind with Senator Johnson and have been taking events out of context to make it look like she was helping private business deals.
When I started to see the fact in context Senator Johnson doesn’t look like a self dealing politician rather just a woman working for economic development.
In my mind their is no question that Senator Johnson is being personally attacked. But why? Who would stand to gain from Senator Johnson being hatcheted. That is the story I’m interested in. It used to be that you could depend on Nigel to find those important stories but instead he has decided that he is going to just follow the Oregonian’s lead.
If I thought Senator Johnson was a scum bag I would say so. But the information is out there that shows she’s not. Then the question become who would benefit from her looking like a scum bag. Unfortunately that information is not available.
Hang in there WWeek. What this has shown is how people like Nate Robinson don’t have a clue about what ethics are about. The facts show Johnson has interwined her personal interests with her public actions – that by definition is unethical. She has several options: In the Federal government elected officials put their assets in blind trusts so they, at least in most cases, don’t have their judgement clouded. She can be a private citizen and pursue her businesses interests to her heart’s content. But if the reported facts are correct, her dealings with aviation issues clearly raise ethical questions, and it is now up to the proper authorities to investigate.
Add some balance Nate, There are tons of blogs like loadedorygun try NW Republican or some others. They are all slanted. Loadedorygun is full of Carlas unconfirmed news and don’t expect a pulitzer on her shelf any time soon. Appearantly she found a (Mr or Ms)Pat Zimmerman who was a tyranical, paid for by Betsy, one time Port Commissioner in St. Helens. Pat is feeding Carla a formidable ammount of BS as seems to be her forte. You can research Pats history in the archives of the Clatskanie Chief newspaper who is somewhat defending the good Senator. Nigel will get to the bottom of this if you would clam up and wait. Remember your top notch man Neil Goldschmidt. It takes time to get into the closets of wealthy politicians. By the way, There is another hoaky guy named Bruce Hugo that you should look into as well.He is well connected to Betsy as he was to Neil. He was tossed from office in Columbia County a few years back for low crimes and misdemeanors. I found that in the archives of the Chief as well. Bruce is also a buddy and looks like employee of this Freeman guy who seems to be everybodys beneficiary in little Columbia County.
According to a good source in the dome who’s initials are T.F.
Betsy is trying hard to punish all who get in her way right now and has hired Portland law firm D,W&T to help clean her path to be Hillary’s Oregon Campaign Chair. Hillary’s people know about Betsy’s recent problems and are shying away from her approaches…Clear the taxiway Betsy is loaded and ready to depart. Don’t get in her way or you will pay. It is oh so nice to have a spoiled little rich girl playing in Oregon’s political sandbox.